What is the most ridiculous story in the bible?

[bododie]

And, most christians claim that some parts of the bible are literally true

And Muslims claims ALL of the Qu'ran is true, so what's your point? Of course if Muslim men weren't so afraid of being so easily emasculated, maybe they would allow women to become educated, question the foolishness of THAT mindset, come out of the stone age, And get their asses out of the air. Talk about embarassing.

The bottom line is that for every complaint you have about Christianity, Islam is worse, and always has been. The difference is that Islam has not progressed from the 4th century in any terms and Christianity has. So sorry.....

 

[Dawkinsrocks]

A sterling defence of christianty.

I have said it before and I will say it again.

All religion is ludicrous and yes, some are worse than others but I wouldn't get too complacent if I were you.

The church has plenty of blood on its hands. It has repressed, humilated, impoverished, killed, tortured and scared millions of people throughout history.

 

[bododie]

Maybe you should come into the 21st century. The religious threat to this modern world is Islam, not Christianity. That isn't "Christian" logic, it's a fact.

 

[Dawkinsrocks]

Correct me if I am wrong but didn't the US attack Iraq when Iraq was not attacking the US?

And don't lots of people in America claim to have god on their side?

You really have swallowed this crap about the Muslims haven't you?

Has it ever occurred to you that now your leaders can't legitimately use the cold war to justify spending all your money on weapons they have come up with Muslims as the new big threat.

But the US has killed around 6 MILLION people since WW2 in the attacks it has made on largely democratic states.

Now correct me if I am wrong but I think the US would describe itself as a christian country wouldn't you?

I know it is the world's largest producer of hard core pornography but it is a christian country isn't it.

What a joke.

 

[bododie]

The government is not Christian. Is there some reason why you can't get that through your thick head? The American people have not declared war on anybody.

 

[9sublime]

The government isn't Christian? Have a laugh. Maybe not de jure, but de facto it most certainly is. It seems mandatory for an elected official to proclaim himself a devout Christian to gain any decent position of power. What does it say on your bank notes?

I agree with Dawkins. A lof of Christians think that every evil deed the church did can be forgotten because a) its in the past, its all changed now or b) hey, muslims are worse.

I don't care if Christianity's tainted past is, well, in the past. The church is the church, its always supposed to have been holy and righteous. Its got blood on its hands. But the more important fact is that Christianity is still killing in its name, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

[Dawkinsrocks]

Their elected representatives did and many christians are in favour of the war.

Palin said attacking Afghanistan and stealing their gas is god's will.

Bush claims to be a christian.

You have to to get elected. That is how mad it is.

Anyway, back to the topic - which is the most ridiculous story in the bible?

How about curing Leprosy or bringing Lazarus back to life?

Do you believe those things happened?

 

[Mare Tranquillity]

There are so many to choose from that it's difficult to decide levels of ridiculosity. My favorites would have to be:
1) Original Sin

2) The Creator of the Universe demanding the tortuous death of an innoncent man to ransom the supposedly guilty ones.

3) God telling His Chosen people to bake bread with their own feces and then go out in public and eat it.

It's also good to recall during this Christmas season that the Bible forbids the keeping and decorating of what we call "Christmas" trees. "Learn not the way of the heathen," read Jeremiah 10:2-5. As a side note we should remember that Jeremiah is said to have written this 500 years BEFORE Jesus reputed birth.

 

[Mare Tranquillity]

And Muslims claims ALL of the Qu'ran is true, so what's your point? Of course if Muslim men weren't so afraid of being so easily emasculated, maybe they would allow women to become educated, question the foolishness of THAT mindset, come out of the stone age, And get their asses out of the air. Talk about embarassing.

The bottom line is that for every complaint you have about Christianity, Islam is worse, and always has been. The difference is that Islam has not progressed from the 4th century in any terms and Christianity has. So sorry.....

It always amazes me when Christians try to excuse themselves by pointing out the failings of others. When exactly did Jesus advocate this technique? He didn't.

There's very little Christ left in Christianity, beyond intermittent, vague lip-service the practice of Christianity ignores the teachings of Jesus. Love others as yourself? Turn the other cheek? Return good for evil? Remove the beam from your eye before the mote in your brother's? Not really, instead we have Might is Right, Kick Ass and Take Names, Do Unto Others First (George called it preemptive war), and kill those we have judged to be unworthy of continuing to live the life that Almighty God GAVE THEM.

 

[foggedinn]

It always amazes me when Christians try to excuse themselves by pointing out the failings of others. When exactly did Jesus advocate this technique? He didn't.

Given that you made this post on a political message board, how could you or anyone else be surprised at people who call themselves christians excusing themselves by pointing out the faults of others. Over half of the posts on this board are either republicans excusing the current administrations faults by blaming the democrats, or democrats excusing their misdeeds by pointing to some republican who has done worse.

You're right of course when you say that Jesus didn't advocate this technique. He advocated the same technique as every prophet in scripture; confess and repent.

As for whoever made the comment that Islam hasn't changed since the 4th century, Mohammod was born in the 7th century.

How about Jesus's conquest over sin and death for a couple of amazing miracles.

 

[Dawkinsrocks]

You mean conquest over the problems his dad made?

Christians like to bang on about what a great sacrifice Jesus made but it was nothing compared to what some hve made.

Many people have given their lives for what they believe but without the bonus of coming back to life a few days later.

Anyone who believes that someone could come back to life after being dead for three days should give it a go.

 

[Mare Tranquillity]

Given that you made this post on a political message board, how could you or anyone else be surprised at people who call themselves christians excusing themselves by pointing out the faults of others. Over half of the posts on this board are either republicans excusing the current administrations faults by blaming the democrats, or democrats excusing their misdeeds by pointing to some republican who has done worse.

You're right of course when you say that Jesus didn't advocate this technique. He advocated the same technique as every prophet in scripture; confess and repent.

As for whoever made the comment that Islam hasn't changed since the 4th century, Mohammod was born in the 7th century.

How about Jesus's conquest over sin and death for a couple of amazing miracles.

I don't know about Jesus' conquest of sin, I wasn't there, but I do know that there have been good people all down through history and we have no proof that Jesus was better or worse than any of them.

As to His conquest of death: there is not now, and as far as I know, never has been a shred of proof that He died and came back to life. Personal testimony doesn't carry much weight, we need to remember that there were people who swore that Joseph Smith had golden plates too. People swore and thousands have died for the mythical WMD that Iraq had too.

As should be noted, there was no reason for Jesus to be killed in the first place. God is God, for God's sake! He didn't have to demand a sadistic death and blood payment for anything. He could just as well have leaned down from Heaven and in a pretty loud voice said, "I forgive all you people!" and that would have ended it. This complex story of revenge on an innocent man for the sins of humanity is the kind of thing that a bunch of desert-dwelling, patriarchal, goatherders would come up with--not the Creator of the Universe. And anyway, if God actually spoke to all the people then we'd have something to believe in besides a myth about a sadistic murder demanded by God, the basis for which is the testimony of a few people who have been dead for thousands of years.

 

[Dr.Who]

Because it is possible for sound o break objects does not mean that trumpets could bring down a wall. And as I said, if they could they would be banned from public buildings.

then I suppose it is good that the story does not say that it was the sound waves that brought the wall down. The story says that if they did a number of things then god would bring the wall down.

But I take your point in general which is that even though the Jericho stroy is ridiculous there are even madder ones like the one you cited.

A god who can create a world from nothing (which incidentally is the same as the most popular scientific theory around - the big bang theory.) could easily break the least technologically advanced wall in history.

Andy, I'd love to hear your interpretation of the flood which put more water on the earth than is contained in all the oceans for a period of 6 weeks and then it all went away.

I don;t know what Andy will say but I would say what makes you think it required so much water?

The story does not say that it required so much water. In fact many people today think it describes a local flood requiring not so much more water than a whole bunch of other floods that have occurred.

Maybe the kangaroos surfed back to Australia on the receding water level.

Hmm, I am not aware of that biblical story.

 

[Dr.Who]

While I am no biblical scholar, not even an interested amatuer. But the notion of a great flood is a highly probable scenario. Almost every American culture is a similar story of a great flood.
I think the notion that Noah was able to secure a pair of every animal on earth is an absurd notion, but certainly making a boat that held a breeding pair of a handful of domestic animals like sheep and poultry within reason.

What I find difficult to absorb is the virgin birth, and the resurrection.

We have to decide if we want a naturalistic explanation or a miraculous explanation.

If you want a naturalistic explanation then we can look to nature to see if there is any reason to think that it could be possible. There are some species of animals that can become pregnant in the absence of males. And there are plenty of times that people who have been what we would have called dead some time ago have been revived after a number of hours. so the biblical story is just a bit more than what already happens.

If you want a miraculous explanation (which is the one the bible offers) then the God of the universe knows the laws of nature better than you do and is able to manipulate them in the ways he wants to.

 

[Dr.Who]

What about the red sea parting on command to let the Israelites escape the pursuing Egyptians by walking along the sea bed?

That sounds perfectly reasonable.

Right I am off for my daily walk on the lake.

Well if it is God who is giving the command or who is causing the actions as a result of a command then why not. He did create the universe after all.

There is no belief system that does not at some point rely on faith. I see no problem with having faith in god who created the universe and I see no problem with having faith in the empirical method - as long as one stops to realize that it is faith.